Dooley Noted: 12/29/2014
Yesterday, I had a patient in my office with shoulder pain.
I asked him what he did for exercise.
Within the list, he included the lat pulldown, a drill where you usually stay seated as you pull a weighted bar towards the chest.
The following discussion ensued.
Dooley: Why do you do the lat pulldown?
Patient: To activate my lats.
Dooley: Great. Can I see you do it?
We don’t have a cable machine at Catalyst SPORT, so I rigged one.
What I saw explained why his shoulder hurt.
He built huge momentum with his arms and low back, as if he were a spring. His shoulders – especially the painful one – hiked as he pulled the weight to his sternum.
Were his lats being used? Sure.
Were the lats being maximally recruited? Emphatically not.
He was doing a fantastic job impinging his rotator cuff and hyperextending his low back.
The point: the exercise was not completing the task he desired.
So, I wanted to see if this pulling drill had carryover into the pull-up.
When I asked him to do one, he couldn’t without pain.
The lat pulldown had carryover alright. He carried over the dysfunction right into the pullup, hiking his shoulders and hyperextending his back.
Only this time, he was dead-hanging his body weight instead of being seated.
If you want to make a lat pulldown work for you, consider changing it into a standing row and working on your technique.
Some tips:
1. Keep a neutral spine. No chin jutting, no butt winking.
2. Coordinate a controlled exhale with the pull down to engage the abdomen. Lats are attached to it.
3. Quick checks: Head up, chin back, shoulders out of your ears, elbows aimed toward the hips.
4. If you can’t maintain 1-3, go lighter.
And if the lat pulldown is not helping your shoulder pain, consider rows or other drills not positioning the arms overhead.
If you’re out of ideas, get assessed and corrected by a movement specialist.
We at Catalyst SPORT can help.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley